


Every Dream Has A Dark Side

by XtaticPearl



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Infinity Gauntlet, Infinity Gems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 20:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11608383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: His armour was a sweatshirt and skin, a façade between death and himself. He left Iron Man behind and walked forward as Tony Stark, as just a man.





	Every Dream Has A Dark Side

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KiernaSerea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KiernaSerea/gifts), [ishipallthings](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishipallthings/gifts).



Tony had the insane urge to scream when Thanos threw Clint away like a rag doll. The archer’s hands didn’t come up to push against the ground, to stagger back up. Instead, he fell beside a twisted metal crater and lay there, listless and still. 

Clint was never still when he wasn’t scouting a target. His fingers rolled over an arrow, his eyes shifted over his teammates, his mouth ticked up before a retort. There was always movement, blunt but dragging motion in his existence. He was never still, not unless he was fighting. He was never quiet under loss. 

Dully Tony’s mind flashed images of Laura’s crestfallen face, Cooper’s angry tears, and Lila’s accusing eyes. Nate would probably not understand, he thought as he looked up at the bald mad Titan who was now fighting Peter.

Peter. Fifteen year old Peter, who called Tony ‘Mr. Stark’, cried like Tony did himself, and had an Aunt who didn’t know that he was going to die. Who was probably dead herself.

He pushed himself up, ears roaring and blood singing with fury because this was Peter, this was a kid Tony needed to save. He distantly heard someone’s yell of pain and it sounded like Steve but Tony couldn’t look back. He had lost Steve a long time ago and he knew that he was made to save the future alone. Steve would be Tony’s guilt to carry, he decided and rushed in towards Thanos, trying to distract him from Peter - who was slipping on bodies and rubble but still fighting. 

The thrusters protested and Tony had no FRIDAY, not after getting used as a punching bag by Thanos just minutes back and losing her voice controls. He had to do this alone and he was used to it, used to being the last man standing. But today that was Peter and Tony could not let that happen. Legacies were not meant to be of grief. That cycle had to end with Tony. 

He saw Thanos catch him coming, saw the ugly smirk form on the purple face and raised his own repulsors for an all-out force. But Thanos had the gauntlet, the one with stones that changed worlds and ended universes. He raised his too.

One second Tony was blasting the monster in his face and the next minute he saw the Power Gem activate. It was the colour of Thanos, the colour of royalty and probably the colour of Tony’s death. He readied his repulsors for another burst.

The purple beam shot out but Tony’s world tilted and collapsed, quite literally. He was pushed against the ground and he slammed his head back against it but took a second to blink. He looked up to see Peter leaning over him, pale face and tearong eyes. Tony opened his mouth to yell at him, to tell him to move, to ask him if he was okay but Peter exhaled shakily and collapsed across his chest.

“What’re you doing?” Tony could hear his voice sharp, angry, terrified, screaming in his control, “Peter, what -”

“I’m sorry,” Peter gasped, a kid, a dumbass kid who was so much like him, but so much Steve too, so much like the idiot who had dropped his shield and grown a beard and come back to fight by Tony’s side, “Tony, I’m sorry.”

Something cracked above them, a sharp crumbling followed by a roar. That was Thor, Tony thought dimly as he stared at Peter gasping for breath below him, clinging to life like Tony was clinging to him. Thor was dead, Tony registered and remembered a vision from years ago when he had seen the aftermath, the body of a friend. 

“Hold on,” he chanted to Peter as he held him, the teenager in the suit that Tony had designed for his protection and failed, “Just hold on, kid, stay down. Breathe, Spiderman, come on, don’t you dare - just breathe, kid.”

He didn’t remember that a breath in led to a breath out too and Peter breathed out on a choke, before he stilled. Everything stilled, everything that was a life of a teenage boy, that was the future, that was a hope for Tony to save somone who wasn’t him - everything stilled. 

He held Peter’s unseeing form and wondered why the world wasn’t burning yet. And then he looked up to see that it was, of course it was. The sky was spitting red, anger and blood and war in its clouds. He felt out of his body, detached and calm in his misery as he looked down to see -

\- Thanos on his knees, howling as his arm lay limp and the Gauntlet thrown a few feet away. Thor’s last gift, Tony thought and clutched Peter closer for a second before letting him down.

The way he did everything. Without looking back, without pausing.

He got up and felt the armour a deadweight on him, useless and a burden. He shed it, letting it clatter to the ground except for his left gauntlet, the only part that still held power. His armour was a sweatshirt and skin, a façade between death and himself. He left Iron Man behind and walked forward as Tony Stark, as just a man.

He was going to fail. He was going to fight.

Thanos caught his eye when he reached the Gauntlet and the Titan rose on his knees higher, eyes mad with rage and body shivering with pain. 

“You cannot win, mortal!” Thanos thundered as Tony picked up the Gauntlet, “You cannot hold the power of Infinity! You have lost, Stark! Look at you, you do not even have your precious armour to fight anymore! You have lost!”

Tony eyed the bejeweled Gauntlet and saw its gleaming power. The power to create, to destroy, to change. He was just a man, just skin and bones that melted in fire and cracked under stone. How would he fight this? How would he fight with just himself and no armour, no team?

If you are nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.

The price of freedom is high and I’m willing to pay it. If I am the only one, then so be it. 

Two men. Two people who had changed Tony’s life. The future and the past and Tony had linked them both. He had brought them into this war. He had lost them both. But both of them came for him, all of them came with him. 

Tony put on the Infinity Gauntlet over his left hand, over his own gauntlet and looked up. Thanos was staring at him, finding him lacking. A lot of people did that but a lot of people had found him worth too. 

Tony looked up at the burning sky and raised the Gauntlet. Clenched his hand under it. Felt its power thrum through him.

He could bring back a past where nobody had died. He could bring back a past where he hadn’t been betrayed. He could change the world. He could rule the world. He could become a creator, the creator. He could do anything. 

He closed his hand under the Gauntlet and closed his eyes. Opened his mouth.

“No” he whispered and let his voice grow stronger, images of his family, his team, his friends, his creations flashing through his eyes, “It was worth everything. It was worth it. I don’t want to change anything. I won’t change anyone.”

A breath. A pause to let his mind fill with all that he had lost. With all that he had gained. 

“Go away,” he commanded and opened his eyes to the sky, daring it to defy him, “I don’t want your power. Go. Leave.”

There was a roar from somewhere ahead and he knew that the Stones were sentient and displeased with him but he held firm. 

The Stones flashed their power and the Gauntlet glowed. Tony locked his knees and stared into the light, welcoming the heat of the burning sky. 

He let the Gauntlet burn and kept his fist raised to the galaxy that stored its powers in this one gauntlet. 

He felt himself burn and he closed his eyes.

He would be the last man standing.

The world burnt with him.

“.., Tony! Tony, wake up!” a voice called out urgently from some haze, “Shit, how’s the pulse? Tony! Wake up, buddy!”

“Mr. Stark! Mr. Stark, come on! Cap.. Cap, what’s happening?!”

“Stark, Shellhead, open your eyes! Banner!”

“C'mon, Stark, wake up, punk…”

“God fucking dammit, Tony, come on! I’m gonna stick an arrow up your butt, you ass, get UP!”

“Tones, don’t you dare let go! Come on!”

“Somebody get Strange! Tony? Come on, Shellhead, please! Come out of it, Tony…Tony…”

“It’s time to wake up, Anthony. Your team is waiting for you…”

“Iron Man, come on!”

“Tony”

“Tony!”

He forced his eyes open to a slit and found himself staring into azure eyes. Was he dead?

“Easy, Tony, easy,” a voice, Steve’s voice hushed him and then Steve moved back and Tony saw the ceiling of a - hospital room?

“Whmrg?” he gurgled and somebody was holding his hand now, but nothing made sense.

“It’s okay,” he heard Rhodey say from somewhere, “This is real, Tones. It’s okay.”

“Ho- how?” he let out a hoarse sound, more air than voice but thankfully someone understood him.

“There was a guy!” Peter said, oh god Peter, “Some Warlock something. Adam, I think. He just whooshed in after - okay, I don’t know what exactly happened but I think after you broke the Gauntlet. Thanos had you in his Mind Gem gimmick, right?”

Gimmick? Gimmi -

Mind Gem. Manipulation. Tony realized with a jolt that it had all been a lie. 

He remembered now. Him taking the brunt of a beam of light. Thanos taunting him. Him seeing his worst nightmare again. 

Steve’s face came into his line of vision again and he was smiling with tremulous look. He looked tired, beaten, and dirty but he was smiling and alive. 

“You did it,” Steve said and Tony felt his heart lurch, “You saved the day, Avenger.”

Tony felt like he was breathing through a body of wounds but he smiled back and breathed. 

The last man standing was enough, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> For my favourite cheerleaders who never give up on me.


End file.
